Gary Megson has called on the Bolton fans to get fully behind the team against West Ham on Saturday as they fight for their Premier League status.

With five games left to play, Bolton are four points below 17th-placed Birmingham and have not won a league game since beating Reading at the beginning of February.

As they prepare for their potentially vital game at home to West Ham on Saturday, Megson has asked supporters to leave their criticisms at home and create a positive atmosphere to spur the team on.

"The fans always have a big part to play," he told The Bolton News.

"Sometimes they underestimate the effect they can have on a game."

The slump coincided with star striker Nicolas Anelka's switch to Chelsea in January, and the win over Reading remains their only league win since his departure.

And while Megson acknowledges the club needed to find a quality replacement for the France star, he insists 'it wasn't for the want of trying'.

"We made one enquiry to a club and were quoted £21m for a player who wasn't anywhere near the class of Nicolas Anelka," added Megson.

"We went for another young player, a centre-forward - they are both foreign players - and made a £7m offer and that was turned down.

"We tried, but there is no denying that we haven't scored enough goals and we are also now in the process of leaking way, way too many.

"That's because there's a chain reaction. The more you're not scoring goals, you get people flooding forward to try and do that, then leave yourself open at the back.

"The reverse also applies. If you're leaking goals then everybody starts being a little bit defensive and negative and you suddenly find yourself not scoring.

"It's a team thing up and down the pitch."

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